


A little piece of heaven

by quafflerain1044



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Fluff, POV Third Person, Sweet Daryl Dixon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-07
Updated: 2019-02-07
Packaged: 2019-10-23 17:24:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17687735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quafflerain1044/pseuds/quafflerain1044
Summary: Set after the fall of the Greene farm, before the start of Season 3.The group has been on the road for quite some time now and they're growing restless with the threat of winter coming. Reader and Daryl go on their own to scout for a place to spend the night when they come across a small building that looks like it might be just what they're looking for.A close call with death and some fluffy comfort ensues.





	A little piece of heaven

She wrapped her thin jacket tighter around her body as the cold breeze wafted through the trees. Fall was coming, that was evident by the switch in temperatures, not even the sun would be enough to warm them up anymore and the nights were turning colder and colder. It would’ve been a welcomed rest from the blistering summer heat had it not been for their lack of shelter and proper clothing.

They had been on the road for a little more than 6 months now and every day they all grew a little bit more anxious to find a permanent place to call a home. The fact that Lori’s belly was growing bigger every day as her due date grew nearer only made things worse.

She looked around her as she heard some leafs rustling and a twig snapping. Her hand was already grabbing her knife as she turned around ready to take on any threats that might come their way. Her stance relaxed as she saw a familiar shape walk out from some bushes.

“Find anything useful, Dare?” She asked the archer, she knew he hated being called that and that fact just made it even funnier so she kept calling him that. He lifted the rope he had attached on his belt and showed her a few squirrels dangling from it. “My hero” she said, jokingly putting a hand to her heart with a smirk and she could see a little bit of amusement in his permanently squinted blue eyes.

She had been walking at the front of the group and she looked back at the rest of them. They all looked exhausted and miserable. “Hey guys, Daryl brought dinner back” she announced and they all looked up at her with tired smiles on their faces. True happiness wasn’t a very common thing lately.

“I think we should all rest here for a bit, we’ve been walking for most of the day” Rick said, nodding his head for emphasis.

“I’ll keep watch” T-Dog said standing on top of a fallen tree and scouting around for any imminent threat.

Lori breathed out a sigh, half relieved and half out of exhaustion. With the help of Carol, she sat down on a lodge and rested her back on the trunk of an old oak tree. She caressed her belly and smiled as Carl sat down in front of her and started asking questions about the baby.

(Y/N) smiled softly at the sight and then looked around at the rest of the group as they all settled down around their makeshift camp. It wouldn’t be a good idea to stay there for too long, the trees all around blocked the view and the hard terrain would make it very hard for them to make a run for it if they had to.

“Hey Rick,” she said, walking towards their leader, who was squatting in front of Hershel and discussing something in hushed tones. “sorry to interrupt, but I think I’m gonna go ahead and keep exploring, see if I can find a cabin or something, we can’t stay here for too long, it’s too risky and out on the open”

Rick looked like he was about to tell her not to when Daryl walked up from behind her, putting a hand on her shoulder, “I’ll go with ‘er” he said and she looked at him with a little grin.

“Don’t take too long” Rick said, nodding to both of them, “and be careful out there”

“You got it, boss” she answered and turned around to continue walking in the direction they had been heading. She checked her revolver to see how many bullets she had left and sighed as she realized she had only one. Well, at least she had enough to take care of things if she had to. Not that she was too keen on taking her own life -or ending someone else’s, for that matter- but in this world you had to keep your mind open.

She could feel Daryl behind her as they walked in silence and basked in how comfortable it felt. She had felt a connection with the redneck ever since they met and she knew it was mutual. Even if he was too shy or proud to admit to it.

She had always been kind of quiet and was used to keeping to herself, she always felt a bit awkward in groups. It had made it easy for her to find comfort in the company of the archer, and he didn’t seem to mind her tagging along on his hunting trips or when he went out looking for Sophia, even teaching her a thing or two about traps and tracking. She had a bit of experience, having gone on many hunting trips with her dad when she was younger, but he was much more experienced.

He welcomed her company, being a fresh change from the constant bickering and bitch fights happening at the camp. She was quiet and could fight really well, even managing to catch a few squirrels with a home-made sling shot.

When the end of the world came around, it had been easy for her to leave everything behind and just survive on her own, until she met Rick and Daryl and joined their group. That had been a complete game changer -even if they had been a bit hesitant to welcome her, considering they already had enough trouble in their hands to deal with-.

They had been staying at Hershel’s farm back then, and animosity between Rick and Shane had been growing uglier and more dangerous by the day. She had had half a mind to pack her stuff up again and leave when she saw the two of them competing for who puffed their chest out more. She was glad now that she hadn't as they had quickly become her family. 

“What’cha thinking ‘bout?” came the gruff tones of Daryl. (Y/N) looked at him with a crooked grin.

“Just about how fragile masculinity is, even when the world has ended” she answered and it was Daryl’s turn to scoff.

“Nah it ain’t” he said and as he walked next to her she could feel their arms slightly touching.

“Whatever you say, darling” she smirked and she could sense he was about to throw a smart ass response when her eyes saw something a bit further up the hill. “Hey, you see that?” she asked and he looked in the direction she was pointing, the trees stopped and a large field stretched for a few yards before it came to a halt when it touched the walls of a small building.

She looked at Daryl and smiled at him “Praise Jesus, hallelujah”.

“We should look around before we call the others, see if there ain’t someone inside already” Daryl said and she nodded as they made their way towards the small church through the edge of the woods, careful not to walk outside of the tree line in case there was anyone around.

The place looked empty from the outside, like it hadn’t been touched in a while. That unnerved her a bit and she looked at Daryl. “What do you think?”

“Looks well ‘nough” he answered, “let’s check the inside”.

They made their way to the front door and she looked through one of the dirty windows, “looks pretty empty” she whispered. They stood on each side of the double doors as he tapped his knife on the window to attract anything that might be hiding on the inside.

A few seconds passed and they couldn’t hear anything on the inside. She shrugged and he went to open the door, it was locked.

“Here, let me try” she said as she knelt in front of the doors and took a bobby pin from her hair. She hadn’t ever actually tried it but one of her friends had showed her how to unlock doors when she was a teenager. She prayed it would work.

“You know how to unlock doors with bobby pins?” Daryl asked, slightly impressed. She looked at him and could see a smile on his face, it was a rare but really nice sight that made her heart flutter a bit.

“I know the basics” she said with a shrug and went back to concentrate on the task at hand. It took a few tries but in the end she was able to open the door after juggling the doorknob and twisting the bobby pin inside the lock.

She stood up and took her knife from where she kept it at her belt, walking inside after Daryl, who had his crossbow raised and ready to shoot at anything that came in front of them. She closed the doors behind them, in case any walkers decided to come praying.

The place seemed like it had been locked up since the very beginning, it was completely empty as she and Daryl walked through the aisles of benches. The only living creatures seemed to be the spiders that had built their webs on every crevice available. She scrunched up her nose at a particularly large one, chills running up her spine.

“I’m gonna check the back room” she said as she walked towards it, holding her knife at the ready. She put her back against the door, her knife up and her other hand on the door knob, slowly turning it around and opening the door. The hinges creaked loudly, ending any chance of a silent entry as she walked inside.

She was about to call out that it was clear when a pair of bony hands grabbed her ankle and made her fall down, her knife flying far away from her reach. She yelped and tried to scurry away from the walker that was now crawling towards her, half of the body had been eaten and its intestines were dragging across the floor.

“(Y/N)?!” Daryl yelled from the other room as he came running towards the room. She was about to grab her knife when another walker came out from a small closet and fell on top of her. She struggled to keep its rotting paws away from her as she continued to kick at the other walker at her feet.

As soon as the walker had fallen on top of her, she felt it stop struggling to bite her as a spurt of blood squirted from the whole an arrow left as it pierced its skull, effectively covering her in walker blood. She felt the weight of the walker being lifted off of her as Daryl pushed it aside, quickly turning to plunge his knife into the skull of the remaining walker and ending its attempts at clawing at her feet.

She heaved out a breath she had been holding and crumbled back down on the floor. It dawned on her then how terrified she had been, how much of a close call that had been. She closed her eyes and tried to control her breathing.

Daryl franticly checked her for any bites or scratches and she let him prod around, too shocked to do anything. Deeming her clean of wounds, he concentrated on her emotional wellbeing.  

“(Y/N), ya ok?” Daryl asked softly from beside her and she could hear the worry in his voice. She opened her eyes and saw him looking at her, concern written all over his voice.

“Yeah, I think so” she said as she reached out with her hand and ran it through his stubble covered cheek. After a few seconds of gazing into his eyes, anchoring in them to control her anxiety and the panic rising up in her, she sat back up. “Goddamn fuckers came out of nowhere”

“’S ok, ye’r alright” Daryl drawled as he scooped her up in his arms and hugged her, drawing slow circular patterns on her back. He wasn’t about to admit it, but he had been scared as hell that he might lose her and this hug was as much for her comfort as it was for his. They stayed like that for a while, both finding solace in each other’s touch.

She felt her heart flutter again and thought maybe her feelings of comradery with the archer might be switching to something else, something deeper and more intense.

“’S weird man, the whole place was clean and locked up” Daryl said, clearing his throat as he let her go and sat next to her. They both felt a little disappointed at the loss of warmth.

“Maybe one of them died and came back before the other could get out, ended up being walker supper” she shrugged as she rested her head on his shoulder, “we need to go get the others, they might be worried already”

“Hmm” Daryl grunted, and then with a smile “Rick‘ll be fucking pissed”

“He’ll get over it once he sees this place” she said as they both got up, she kicked the body of the first walker out of the way of the door and as she did so, she could see inside the closet the other one had come from. “Holy shit, Daryl you gotta see this”

Apparently there had been a fundraiser not long before the world came tumbling down and everything had still been stored inside the small church. Hundreds of cans of food, bottles of water and even a dozen blankets and hand-me-down coats and clothes. She almost felt like crying once again.

“Bin-fucking-go” she said with a chuckle and he smirked down at her, a little amazed at the treasure they had just come across. “We should grab some of it and take it back just in case”, she said and he nodded. She grabbed a bag that was laying inside the closet and packed it with a few cans of food, some bottles of water. She also shrugged her thin jacket off and put on a thicker one, reveling in the warmth it brought to her body. At last, she took a blanket and decided it was enough to carry for now. “Let’s go”

The both made their way back faster than they had before, after securing every entry to the place to make sure it wouldn’t be taken over by more walkers. After 15 minutes of walking they could hear their friends calling their names and knew they had taken more time than anyone was comfortable with. They walked faster until they could see the silhouettes of their family walking through the woods and looking for them.

“(Y/N)! Daryl!” Carl’s excited voice called for them, making every face turn in the direction the boy was running to, “we were worried sick! We thought something had happened”

“We ran into some trouble, but we’re ok,” she said, as she wrapped her arms around the boy in a short hug. Standing up again she looked at Rick, who was patting Daryl on the back. “We found a place not too far from here, you’re not gonna believe it”

She opened her bag and showed the contents to the rest of the group. Rick came to her and hugged her, nodding as he let go as a way of thanks.

“There’s even more there, but we should go now before it gets dark” Daryl said and they all started gathering their things once again. Daryl and (Y/N) leading the way back to what now felt like a little piece of heaven for the group. Maybe it would be an opportunity for all of them.

She didn’t want to get her hopes up though, knowing that peace didn’t last long in this world.

As she looked at Daryl though, she decided that she’d give it a chance. She reached with her hand and softly touched his, asking for permission. As they came closer to the church and seeing as he didn’t pull away from her touch, she went for a bolder move and intertwined their fingers. (Y/N) felt him squeeze her hand slightly and she smiled, her cheeks warm as a blush creeped up on her.

Yeah, maybe this would be a good place to start all over.


End file.
